News

Bigge Celebrates 99 Years

Jul 31 2015

Happy Birthday Bigge! Today, July 31, 2015, Bigge is celebrating our 99-year anniversary. In 1916, Henry W. Bigge and his father started the Bigge Drayage Company, hauling trunks and cargo to and from railroad depots in the East Bay Area of California. The company was incorporated in California, and obtained our General Engineering and Contractor's License, #9859, in 1934, one of the oldest, active licenses in the State.

Over the years, our company has prospered and grown by expanding and modernizing our fleet of cranes, rigging, hoists, and hauling equipment. And through our engineering innovation and ingenuity, we have been able to introduce new techniques and methods that have solidified our reputation for leadership, safety, and quality in the crane and rigging industry.

Our growth and success is also the result of having a deep heritage of hiring the best people, and giving them the best training, equipment and resources in the industry. Today, in our third generation of family ownership, Bigge is still a privately-owned crane company, and is led by our CEO Weston Settlemier, grandson of founder Henry Bigge.

These last 99 years we have hit some amazing milestones. Here are some of the more recent highlights:

Bigge has increased our inventory of cranes owned to over 700 in the last 15 years, including the doubling of our tower crane and hoist capacities in the last few years alone.

Bigge cranes powered the new San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge construction, and helped bring the Bay Area Rapid Transportation (BART) trains directly into the Oakland International Airport earlier this year.

Bigge expanded our sales, heavy transportation, and rental capabilities, with a new Gulf Coast headquarters location in Houston, TX in 2011. We have increased cranes sales from this port across the US, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

Bigge was founded based on the belief that we could best serve our customers by a hands-on management of the services needed, and the utilization of our own fleet of heavy lift and transportation equipment. By maintaining that belief, we have grown into an industry-leading worldwide organization.